Category
Online business
Practical guides to starting and running a small online business with low overhead: picking a niche, the boring operations that keep a store alive, getting to a first launch fast, and writing pages people actually trust.
22 articles
About the Online business thread
Field notes from actually running one, not a course. The bias throughout is toward decisions that are cheap to reverse and structures that survive a bad month, because the failure mode for small online businesses is rarely a bad idea; it is a fixed cost that arrived before the revenue did.
The cluster runs from the first thirty days (what genuinely has to exist before launch, which is far less than most checklists claim) through the operational middle: support when the product is free, pricing that does not require a rebuild later, and owning your distribution so a platform cannot switch your audience off. That last theme recurs, because it is the mistake that is most expensive to fix after the fact.
What this topic covers
- Starting lean: what has to exist in the first thirty days, and what does not
- Customer support when the product is free and the inbox is not
- Owning distribution: RSS, email, and channels nobody can take away
- Brand and storytelling for a business with no marketing budget
- Day-to-day operations, cadence, and the metrics worth watching
Who it's for
People starting or running a small online business, and operators who prefer specifics with numbers to motivational framing.
22 articles in this thread, newest first. Every one is free to read with no signup.
22 articles in this thread
Online business · May 4, 2026
Choosing a payment processor and cutting checkout abandonment
Pick a processor that fits your basket and cash flow, then remove the friction that makes ready buyers abandon checkout.
Novus Stream Solutions (hub)
Online business · Apr 28, 2026
Pre-orders and pre-selling: fund a first product run without debt
A pre-order funds your first production run and proves demand at the same time, provided you run it honestly and never spend the money before you ship.
Novus Stream Solutions (hub)
Online business · Apr 21, 2026
Your first paid ads on a tiny budget (and when to skip them)
Treat your first paid ads as a small, kill-switch experiment, not a faucet you turn on for instant customers.
Novus Stream Solutions (hub)
Online business · Apr 7, 2026
Sales tax, VAT, and GST for small online sellers (without an accountant)
Sales tax, VAT, and GST are money you collect and remit, not revenue you keep, and a small seller can stay safe by watching sales by jurisdiction against the thresholds.
Novus Stream Solutions (hub)